


Take a Breath

by SheWhoWalksUnseen



Series: ColdWestAllen Week 2018 [5]
Category: The Flash (TV 2014)
Genre: ColdWestAllen Week 2018, Comfort, Established Relationship, F/M, Fluff, Hospitals, Iris is only here in mention but she's here I promise, M/M, Multi, Pregnancy, excessive worrying
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-19
Updated: 2018-06-19
Packaged: 2019-05-20 16:40:46
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,283
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14898188
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SheWhoWalksUnseen/pseuds/SheWhoWalksUnseen
Summary: Why couldn’t Iris have gone into labor on a day when he wasn’t in the midst of a feud with the Santinis? Not that she bore any control over the situation, but still. A little more warning would’ve been nice before he’d been sped out of Mick’s safehouse and into the hospital by one anxious metahuman boyfriend.





	Take a Breath

**Author's Note:**

> For Day 5 of ColdWestAllen Week's "Medical" prompt, I went with the easiest idea I could come up with. I know next to nothing about hospitals and medical jargon so have a drabble about anxious expectant dads.

If Barry paced around the waiting room one more time, consequences and love life be damned, he was going to freeze his feet to the floor.

“Do you think she’s okay?” It was the fifth time he’d asked this question in the three hours they’d been here.

“She’s probably fine, Scarlet.”

Barry groaned and ran his hands through his hair. The only other people waiting with them were a mother and her bored teenage daughter, and the former was beginning to look concerned for Len’s boyfriend’s well-being. Which was understandable, to be honest.

“I just - I wish we could be in there!”

Len bit back a sigh. “I know."

“I know I’m overreacting and we were probably in the nurses’ way but  _still_  - “

Len reached out and grabbed Barry’s wrist as he paced by his chair, pulling the speedster to a halt.  _Finally._  

“Barry,  _breathe_ ,” he said, struggling to keep his voice calm and sound not at all mentally and physically at the end of his rope (why couldn’t Iris have gone into labor on a day when he  _wasn’t_  in the midst of a feud with the Santinis? Not that she bore any control over the situation, but still. A little more warning would’ve been nice before he’d been sped out of Mick’s safehouse and into the hospital by one anxious metahuman boyfriend). “Iris West-Allen is the strongest woman I know, aside from Lisa. If anyone can push through this, she can."

Barry swallowed hard. Len could feel the tremors vibrating under his skin, the irresistible urge to  _run and don’t stop until you find her_  blazing like a wildfire in his veins. The fear radiating off of him was palpable. Even the mother and her daughter squirmed across the room, the hairs on their arms standing on end from the suppressed heat and raw energy on Barry’s part.

Len would rarely admit - even to himself - to being terrified at times like this. He himself was on the edge of his own anxiety attack, his nerves fried from the sheer shock of Barry’s arrival and the breathless “Her water broke, the baby’s  _coming,_ Len,” that had greeted him once his stomach had stopped churning from the rush of the Speedforce. The reality of the situation was almost suffocating (Iris was  _in labor_. Iris was  _having the baby_   _now._ )

The only thing keeping Len from storming into Iris’ room with the cold gun and demanding everyone to leave was that Iris had specifically told Len to keep Barry out of the room while she was in pain because “he’s been hovering by my head and getting in the way and I love him but if I hear one more question about whether I’m feeling fine, I’m going to snap”. In a way, he was glad not to be by her side, even if the ordeal was affecting him as badly as Barry. He had always found it easier to deal with calming others down, and soothing Barry’s nerves was something he knew how to do, something he  _excelled_  at.

When you can’t handle a problem at its source, find a smaller, simpler problem to fix and focus on that.

“You sure?” Barry asked. His voice was lower, still worrying but no longer moving about and complaining.

“Positive,” Len murmured, rubbing his thumb over Barry’s wrist lightly, feeling how insanely fast his pulse was thrumming under the smooth skin. “West and Wally will be here soon and they’ll be just as worried. I’m gonna need your help to keep them calm too. Okay?”

Barry nodded. He let out a shaky breath and allowed Len to pull him into the chair beside him, burying his face in the older man’s shoulder. Len pressed a kiss to the top of his head and tried not to grimace at the silent cooing the mother across the waiting room was doing.

Barry murmured something muffled against his shirt. Len couldn’t help the way his mouth twitched at the sound. “What was that, Barry?”

“How are you so good at this?” Barry repeated, lifting his head a couple inches to meet Len’s gaze. Len wanted to kiss the pout off his lips, but he had a feeling the other occupants of the waiting room would enjoy that far too much. He wasn’t here for public displays of affection.

“At what?”

Barry made a vague gesture with his hand. “You know... This. Waiting and not freaking out. How are you so calm? Aren’t you worried?”

Ah. “Of course I’m worried.” Len wrapped one arm around his waist, pulling him flush against his side so he could rest his head on Len’s shoulder properly. “I’m keeping myself distracted, though.”

“How?”

“Helping you, for one.” Barry’s pout turned into a glare and Len chuckled.

“Gee, thanks.”

“It’s not a bad thing to be worried, Barry,” he said. “You have every right to panic and want to be there with Iris. But if you pace around the room one more time I’m going to lose my cool.”

Barry turned his face away but Len caught the glimpse of a smile on his cheeks. “You and your puns.”

“So you and I are going to  _chill out_ \- “

“Okay,  _seriously_ , Len?”

“ - and be patient because the last thing Iris wants is for us to be panicking while she’s doing all the work in there.”

Barry went quiet for a moment, still averting his eyes. His hand found Len’s free hand and squeezed.

Len thought back to the first time Barry had kissed him, smiling wide and tracing his fingers over the nape of his neck with gentleness he wasn’t used to, and wondered how the hell they had gone from one kiss to joining a relationship with another person they loved just as dearly to waiting on her to finish having a  _baby_. When Barry had said that if this relationship was going to work, he needed to be “all in” for both him and Iris, somehow  _pregnancy_  hadn’t been his biggest concern about what it meant to be “all in”.

Not that he would trade this for the world. The worrying and the waiting, maybe, but being able to hold Barry like this and reassuring Iris late at night when Barry flashed out to rescue people in burning buildings and kissing her stomach with his eyes prickling (because he was absolutely  _not_ crying over the idea of Iris being pregnant, shut up, Barry) as Barry nuzzled his neck...

He wouldn’t trade any of those experiences.

Then the door opened and a blonde nurse with a clipboard stepped into the waiting room and his heart rate ratcheted up.

“Mr. Allen, Mr. Smith?”

They sat bolt upright with nods. Barry didn’t let go of Len’s hand; if anything, he squeezed it tighter.

“Uh, that’s us,” Barry said, looking just as nervous as he had minutes before.

“Would you like to come back and see the babies?” The nurse’s smile was kind, as if she knew what they had been doing for three hours. “Your wife is still awake, and she asked to see you.”

Len’s brain stuttered to a halt. Barry didn’t seem to notice yet, too focused on Iris, but it took a moment for Len’s brain to reboot.

_Babies? As in_ plural _?_

“She’s alright?”

The understanding gleam in her eyes helped lessen Len’s anxiety. She likely had to deal with fathers like this on a daily basis. “Iris is just fine. Would you like to come back now?”

Barry’s shoulders drooped and Len nodded, giving the nurse his own smile. “We would love to.”

If she thought the inclusion of another man was strange, she made no comment on it. “Well, right this way.”

**Author's Note:**

> Come scream with me on my DCTV Tumblr @areyouscarletcold. Comments are always appreciated, and have a great day!


End file.
